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My name is NOT Regina, Sirius! (_cor_leonis) wrote in shards_of_time,
@ 2008-09-26 15:53:00

I didn't know I had a twin!
Who: Regulus and Regulus "Paul" Black
What: They're going out for coffee, cause Paul is obviously nuts.
Where: Somewhere in London
When: Just as soon as Regulus finds the lobby
Warnings/Status: None/Started

Coughee. Regulus had never had that before, but Paul said it was a drink and something from the Gods and the boy really just wanted to take his word for it and not test it out because he couldn't see the appeal in such a beverage. Unfortunately for him the cot like bed he'd been given as a temporary sleep place was unbearable because the room he shared was also inhabited by five or so other people. People he didn't recognize and people that smelled funny. Really funny.

And they snored.

It was a bad place for him and sick really, sleeping didn't make any of it go away either because it was hot and stuffy and he as sure that he was beginning to smell like his fellow rifters, as he'd started calling them, and frankly it wasn't appealing. But now, now though he'd got his chance to escape it for a bit and that was through coughee with Paul. Regulus had to get directions to the lobby from three different people on his way out and most of them looked just as confused as he did but he made it some twenty minutes after telling Paul he was on his way.

Now where was he? Regulus scanned the room for a face and landed on one that looked particularly familiar. He bounced forward, bubbling with curiosity and quite eager to be out of St. Mungos even for a little while.

He got close enough to stare harder and stare he did.

"Whoa."

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blackerthanthou
2008-09-27 05:22 pm UTC (link)

Regulus really would have liked to pretend that this other self didn't exist, because he didn't want to believe that he'd been like that at eighteen (had he? Really?) or that he'd been, what, maybe a choice or two away from the drug thing (he never would! Would he?). But he couldn't help feeling a certain kinship with the kid (obviously, they were pretty much identical except for age, physically at least) and wanting - to protect him, save him, and do it better than he'd done for himself.

Clearly, the first step on that road was introducing himself to coffee.

He knew exactly where the lobby was, because he was not crazy and also because he'd spent a lot of time here in the early years at the Everglow Company when he kept blowing things up (by accident!). So he got there moments after writing to himself and leaned on the back of one of the benches, fingers tapping almost unconsciously on the back on it.

He glanced up at the word and saw himself, eight years ago, and almost laughed out loud before remembering to be offended.

"Hey, it's not like I'm scarred or anything," he said, pushing a strand of hair back from his face. Not where anyone could see, anyway. He was just - pale and disheveled and a little edgy, was all, and stress had made him thin and anyway, look at this kid. He'd never been such a shrimp. He was sure.

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_cor_leonis
2008-09-27 05:49 pm UTC (link)

Reggie did laugh out loud, it was obnoxious but very free and careless and filled with that childish joy that the boy just seemed to carry around him all of the time. He grinned broadly and sized Paul--Regulus up. This is what he was going to look like when he got older? This is what he was going to sound like?

Regulus laughed again and shrugged in a bouncy fashion. "I don't like scars," he said matter-of-factly. "So, Paul," he said with a secret grin, "are you sure you're a Nielsen?" A youthful glee glittered behind the boy's eyes. "Oh! Manners, sorry for staring, I'm--well, you. Don't lie! I'm Regulus Black," he said in a quick and very flustered manner before thrusting his hand out for his other self.

"I never thought I'd be going for coughee with myself.. not while being particularly straight in the head," he said and touched his temple with the other hand.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-02 03:53 am UTC (link)

Reg vaguely wished that he could be that young again - that young, and that naive. But with less illicit drugs, naturally. And perhaps less involvement with insane Dark Lords, that would be nice.

"I don't like them either," Reg said, stifling the urge to touch his arm where the Dark Mark had once burned. "And yes, I am a Nielsen." He tilted his head toward the nearest person, hoping to indicate that they could discuss his true nature outside, with less potential eavesdroppers. "Nice to meet you, Regulus." He shook hands firmly, trying to act as though he were meeting the boy for the first time - which technically, he was, except for how he'd been him with only a few differences.

"Neither did I," Reg said. "But I go for coffee often enough I suppose something like this was bound to happen eventually. Shall we?" He inclined his head toward the door.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-02 12:00 pm UTC (link)

He wasn't the brightest boy in the world, that had been apparent from the gates and unfortunately this latest run with the drug issue had given Regulus less hope of ever managing to function or think like a normal person did; he lacked basic critical thinking skills when the necessity for them popped up at random, therefore when Paul made that slight inclination of his head Regulus gave him a 'huh?' kind of expression and swiveled around to stare, trying to figure out what he was indicating.

"What are you--I--Oh!" It hit him and he laughed nervously, facing Paul again with a subtle shrug. "Sorry, anyway.. " With a happy smile the boy bounced forward a pace or two then whipped his head around to stare at Paul for a moment longer as if making sure the man wouldn't pull a knife out and stab him or something. He scanned him up and down then decided he trusted him enough and promptly bounced forward and out of the door, remembering at the last minute to hold it open for his older twin.

"What was your world like, Paul? Where do you come from? Do you have a brother too?" He'd always had that bubbling curiosity, it was annoying at best.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-05 01:45 am UTC (link)

Reg shook his head, smiling a bit at the boy's confusion. Clearly he was going to have to be a lot less subtle. Which begged the question, should he actually go ahead and reveal his true identity? On the one hand, the boy pretty much knew; on the other, he couldn't be trusted with the secret.

Hiding another smile, Reg trailed after his younger self and out the door, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around. "Apparate?" he asked. "I know where we're going."

At the questions, he shrugged and said evasively, "It seems to have been a lot like this one, from what I gather." He didn't bother to answer the question about his brother; he hadn't decided yet whether he was being Paul or not. And Paul didn't have a brother. Just like Sirius didn't, in his world. Sirius's brother was dead...

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-06 05:12 pm UTC (link)

"Fantastic, I'll do sidealong because I'm likely to trip and splinch or something terrible," he said mildly and shrugged. Regulus gazed at Paul and quietly adjusted his own stance to mimic the man's, just a little straightening of the shoulders and a subtle re-arrangement of his facial expression, but that was killed by the ridiculously happy attitude he constantly adopted. He broke into a smile at nothing in particular and canted his head to the side.

"The one I came from was really bad," he said, his cheerful tone suddenly tainted by dark and bitter things, indeed his eyes even seemed to lose their normal brightness, dimmed at the presence of his memories. "A lot of mean things happened to a lot of people, mostly good people.. I had a brother, I say had because.. well we didn't get on well at all and he was sort of.. the favorite," he said lowly, then seemed to shrug it off and happily bounced forward again. "So where are we going?"

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-07 12:33 am UTC (link)

Yeah, the kid was going to have an awfully hard time imitating Reg if he kept smiling all the time. Smiling was something Reg had almost forgotten how to do - unless he was giving fond grins to old books.

But that was more like Reg - that tone of voice, that look of trauma. Surprisingly, the familiarity made his heart ache. He so wanted better for himself, and at least when the kid was smiling he could believe it was so. "Mine was bad too," he said softly. "But I was the favourite." Realising that he might have said too much already, he hastily tried to smile - it looked and felt so weird, on his face - and took the boy's arm. "You'll see," he said, and Disapparated.

They appeared in a surprisingly clean alley behind a rather posh cafe, and Reg started walking around to the front, already more relaxed to be away from St Mungo's and so close to what he truly desired. Nectar of the gods indeed.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-07 06:11 pm UTC (link)

"Wai-" he didn't get the word out in time and before he knew it he was being sucked through another dimension and after a brief moment of feeling like he was being squashed into jelly and quite unable to breathe, both him and Paul came out of the other side. "Ughh, I hate that," he whined irritably and looked around at his body to make sure everything was still intact. He frowned briefly and considered stalling to whine a little more but Paul was already edging around the building and frankly Reggie had spent way too much time in alleys these last few months to ever trust them again.

He gave the area a sketchy look then hurriedly trotted after Paul, "Hey wait," he called and caught up to him enough to snag his hand which he held steadfastly for about point five seconds before releasing it, "Oh.. sorry," he said and shuffled awkwardly before dodging ahead of Paul with a lingering glance back. "Come on, is this it?"

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-09 04:00 am UTC (link)

"Really?" Reg said vaguely. "I like Apparating." Except the splinching part, but he could feel that he was intact, so it was okay.

Reg was startled by the hand-holding and flinched away, then realised how rude that had been and said hastily, "It's fine." He just wasn't used to being...grabbed at. It reminded him of Inferi.

He managed a weak smile for his younger self's antics, then a more genuine one when the front of the building came into view. "Yep, this is it," he said, catching up and reaching to hold the door open.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-09 08:02 pm UTC (link)

He wasn't at all offended about the flinching, it bounced off of him like nothing, mostly because it didn't occur to him what Paul would be flinching at, but oh well. What boy liked holding hands with other boys anyway? Especially one that was like an older brother... except not quite. Regulus peered at Paul and for the first time in a while allowed himself to think of Sirius, it made his chest ache and unconsciously he reached up to rub a hand over his heart before ducking under Paul's arm and into the coffee shop.

The smell was explosive and it filled his nostrils immediately and made the boy reach up to plug his nose hurriedly while he swiveled around to stare at his new companion in surprise. Once the smell cooled enough to not shoot his senses to pieces though, Regulus uncovered his nose and looked around curiously. "Whoa," he said and bounced forward automatically to put his hands all over everything like any normal ten year old would do.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-11 07:22 pm UTC (link)

That smell was the best in the world, and Regulus absently patted his young self on the arm. "You get used to it," he said with a blissed-out grin.

And oh, but you really did, and after awhile the smell was exactly like a high, or what Reg imagined a high was like, anyway. He couldn't even bring himself to rein the boy in when he got all hyper; as long as he didn't break anything...it wasn't as if he was Reg's responsibility, or anything.

Whatever, coffee.

He bounded up to the counter, his movements bearing far more resemblance to his younger self's than he would admit, and ordered a caramel macchiato for himself, then glanced over his shoulder. "Oi, Regulus. What do you want?"

It was so weird, to hear his own name on his lips.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-11 08:12 pm UTC (link)

He did get hyper, well technically he was never... not hyper, which well--he was always energetic, and he was bouncing around the little coffee shop pulling down bags of little coffee beans one after another to look before putting them back up. He was only distracted, and very temporarily, when his older twin called to him. Immediately he was rushing over and leaning up over the counter, he was very remarkably short, to look at the list of foreign words. "What?" he asked, confused, "What's good!" he demanded of Paul, and looking like he was getting the best Christmas present ever, Regulus beamed up at him and reached out to even tug irritatingly on his clothes.

"I've never had coughee, Paul," he said and shrugged. "I don't know what I want, what did you get?" he asked with an obvious zeal.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-11 08:16 pm UTC (link)

Oh, don't ever get Regulus started on coffee.

"It's all good," he said, with a worshipful glance up at the menu. "I got a caramel macchiato, it's mostly caramel and whipped cream and I like to add cinnamon, you can barely taste the coffee, really. But plain coffee, that's not to everyone's taste, it's quite bitter." He scanned the menu and eventually ordered a cappuccino for his younger self; better to learn what coffee-coffee was like before moving on to the truly specialty drinks, right?

He shuffled to the side to let the next customer order, and, not taking his eyes off the barista pouring their drinks, said, "You can spice it up with - oh, all sorts of things, cream and sugar and chocolate. It's over there." He nodded vaguely at a counter of add-ons, perhaps unwisely.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-11 08:28 pm UTC (link)

Right, well none of those words made any sense to Regulus so he just pretended to understand, but unfortunately for Reg, not Reggie, he was uniformed of the additional condiments. The boy's eyes widened at the prospect of chocolate so he launched himself away and happily over to the little counter of extras. He lifted lids, took a sniff and closed it again until he came upon the chocolate. "Neat!" he said excitedly and very uncertainly bounced away from it to snatch up his poured drink from the counter it was left on.

Sheepishly, he dug out the one or two knuts and silver sickles he had to his name and poured them onto the counter before dodging away again, not remembering this was a distinctly muggle location, and back to the counter to begin pouring in a mass amount of cream and chocolate into his coffee.

"Oh! Thanks, Paul," he said distractedly.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-11 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Regulus gave the barista an innocent grin, palming the coins and paying her in money he'd changed at Gringotts earlier for just this eventuality. He'd give the money back later, of course, he was no thief.

Taking his own drink to add cinnamon, he leaned over to Reggie and whispered, "It might be wise to taste it as you go. If you add too much, you can't really take it back." Reg, on the other hand, knew exactly what he liked, and had his seasoned to taste in seconds.

He leaned against the counter, watching the room with his customary paranoia, and added, "You're welcome, of course."

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-11 09:10 pm UTC (link)

Regulus didn't exactly care about what it would taste like, after all he was still partial to cocoa, but he did as suggested and happily and very excitedly took his very first drink of coffee ever.... and spluttered. He nearly spit it out for the wild sweetness that touched his tongue like a shocking volt of... of sugar. He coughed and shook his head wildly, then burst into a fitful laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation. "It's so sweet!" he said and holding the cup in both hands, brought it to his lips again for a deeper drink of the liquid.

It was fantastic, sweet and different and really, really bad and he didn't like it at all but it was very powerful. He giggled stupidly and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's so grotty," he said with a grin. "Let me taste yours," he said and edged around the counter so that he was standing right beside Paul.

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blackerthanthou
2008-10-11 09:32 pm UTC (link)

Regulus laughed too, though quieter - really letting go, that was another thing he'd forgotten how to do. He remembered having a similar reaction to his first drink of coffee. They'd teased him at work for months. At least his younger self was in good company, that didn't mock.

"Well, yes," Reg said, "you poured half the chocolate in it!" He held his cup out willingly, always ready to help bring a new convert to the cult of the coffee bean. Regulus Arcturus Black, member since 1981.

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_cor_leonis
2008-10-11 09:55 pm UTC (link)

"I like chocolate," he said as if Paul didn't already know this. Regulus abandoned his cup momentarily for Paul's and eagerly took a drink of it, a very small one actually since he didn't like his own, but... "This one tastes better," he said matter-of-factly, "but mine is sweeter, I like it more." With a face, Regulus gave Paul his coffee and went back to his own.He even managed to settle down on a nearby chair to lean over a table over a table.. it wouldn't last long though, his energy got the best of him and his hands were already starting to shake for the sugar rush in his veins, his heart was thudding steadily but noticeably picking up the pace.

"I don't feel good, Paul."

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